Friday, March 19, 2010

Listening to the Universe

I scowled at my uncle for not listening to messages that were "coincidentally" sent when he most needed to hear them. Today I got an email from an old friend who used to be in the choir. She sent a video of an Israeli official from U.N. Watch making a speech in the U.N. . These were arguments I knew well and have heard before--all the Arab nations and others express such sympathy for the Palestinians, but the only people who get criticized for such policies are the Israelis, not the others who have committed outright genocide. And when inter-fighting among the powers ruling the Palestinians kills innocents, no one says a word. All of this is true. I need to remember it and not hold Jews to standards no one else lives up to. Yet I want to believe that we really are a light unto the nations. I want us to hold ourselves to better standards than other nations do. Perhaps this is not realistic.

2 comments:

marly said...

The more individuals desire to hold their nation to a higher standard, the more the world inches toward something better, don't you think?

Robbi N. said...

If I had the courage of my convictions and was an activist in the Israeli peace movement, this might be true, but the truth is, I don't open my mouth because I would seem like an enemy to many in my community I esteem. Since I have never lived in Israel or even visited there, I feel somewhat as if I have no right to make demands, so I stay quiet, but I am greatly troubled about this issue. I don't want to profit by someone else's pain. The truth is though, that the entire nation of Israel could benefit if it could only stop being on the defensive all the time. Perhaps the surrounding nations would never allow this, but it is something I would like to see.